You may have heard that vitamin D is known as the sunshine vitamin. That is because skin exposed to sunlight makes this crucial hormone. However, when nights are long and days are short and cold, we c…

Many Americans have difficulty with "regularity." They may pass stool infrequently or they may find their stool is hard and painful to pass. People are eager to find ways to combat chronic constipatio…

Aromatherapy, the use of plant materials with notable fragrance, has long been popular in Europe. It is now becoming more widely adopted in the US as well. In this approach, people utilize the "essent…

Facts are essential for scientific understanding. Stories are critical for wisdom, understanding the arc and meaning of our lives. Dr. Rachel Naomi Remen, author of two wonderful books about stories, …

Medical errors are a leading cause of death and disability. Some patient safety experts estimate that between 250,000 and 400,000 people die annually because of medical mistakes (BMJ, May, 2016; Journ…

Will the Mediterranean diet protect your heart? Such diets have a reputation as a tasty way to cut your risk of heart disease. Previous randomized controlled trials, such as the Lyon Diet Heart Study …

Nobody wants to be hospitalized during the holidays if at all possible. There are medical reasons to avoid hospital discharge during the winter holidays if you can. What Is the Problem with Holiday Ho…

If you are like us, you may still have a few people who deserve Christmas gifts that you haven't yet purchased. Have you considered a book or holiday gift bundle from The People's Pharmacy? If you ord…

A large antitrust suit against generic drug companies has been building for a few years. When we first heard about this situation in November, 2016, approximately a dozen generic firms were implicated…

Millions of people take statins to lower their cholesterol levels.Here are just a few examples of the numbers of prescription filled each year: atorvastatin= 97 million; simvastatin= 65 million; prava…

Have you ever found yourself coughing in the middle of the night and reached for the cough medicine? If your household is like ours, once in a while that bottle was used up two months ago. Luckily, yo…

During cold season, many people suffer from outbreaks of cold sores, also called fever blisters. Perhaps when the immune system is busy fighting off another infection, the herpes simplex virus that ca…

How do you keep yourself awake behind the wheel? This seems like an innocuous question, but it is in fact vitally important. Driver fatigue contributes to traffic accidents and fatalities around the w…

Generic medicines are supposed to save you money, but not all generic drugs are interchangeable. Many people are aware that generic levothyroxine and the brand name Synthroid can't always be freely sw…

Whenever a new drug is introduced, we want to know two things: how well does it work? and also, what are the side effects? We recently wrote about the flu medicine Xofluza, which shortens the duration…

Parents across the country have been alarmed today to hear that some brands of ibuprofen sold as fever medicine for infants have been recalled. What led the manufacturer, Tris Pharma Inc., to recall i…

We know we sound like a cracked record when it comes to mail-order medicines. That's because no one seems to want to take responsibility. The FDA has very strict guidelines for temperature fluctuation…

We have been waiting for long-term survival data from a pricey new immunotherapy called CAR-T. That stands for chimeric antigen receptor T-cell therapy. Patients donate blood so that their white blood…

Many personal care products such as soaps, shampoos, deodorants, perfumes and cosmetics contain endocrine-disrupting chemicals. These include phthalates, parabens and phenols such as triclosan, which …

Do people who often indulge in sugary soft drinks sweetened with fructose have a higher risk of developing type 2 diabetes? Previous studies have suggested a link. Processed Foods and Diabetes: An ana…

Currently, in community/retail pharmacy, there is a large focus on immunizations. Especially in the fall months, much time is spent on vaccinating patients against influenza (flu) and pneumonia. Recen…

Millions of people take benzodiazepines every day. Such drugs are variously described as anti-anxiety agents, sedatives, hypnotics (to aid sleep) or benzos for short. At last count about five million …